FTW94LA181 · Mooney M20J
Mooney M20J · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From Fort Stockton Pecos County Airport (FST) to Scottsdale Airport (SDL)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW94LA181
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Completed
- API-reported fatalities
- 0 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- General aviation
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Mooney M20J
- Aircraft type
- Mooney M20
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N50105
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Fort Stockton Pecos County Airport (FST), Fort Stockton, TXTo Scottsdale Airport (SDL), Scottsdale, AZ
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 91: General Aviation
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- En route · cruise
- First occurrenceThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Total loss of engine power (mechanical failure)
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Engine assembly, connecting rod › Failure, total
- Lubricating system, oil port/passage, internal › Blocked(total)
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PROPELLER RPM SURGED AND AS THE PILOT ATTEMPTED TO REDUCE POWER, THE ENGINE VIBRATED VIOLENTLY AND STOPPED WHEN THE THROTTLE WAS CLOSED. A FORCED LANDING WAS MADE TO A MESQUITE AND SAGE BRUSH COVERED DESERT. DURING ROLLOUT THE AIRCRAFT IMPACTED SEVERAL LARGE CLUSTERS OF MESQUITE AND A FENCE RESULTING IN SUBSTANTIAL DAMAGE TO BOTH WINGS AND HORIZONTAL STABILIZERS. EXAMINATION OF THE 580 HOUR ENGINE REVEALED THAT TWO CONNECTING RODS HAD FAILED DUE TO LACK OF LUBRICATION. A BEARING WAS FOUND TO HAVE SPUN, BLOCKING THE ENGINE OIL FLOW. THE AIRPLANE HAD BEEN INVOLVED IN AN INCIDENT 108 HOURS PRIOR TO THE ACCIDENT IN WHICH THE ENGINE WAS OPERATED WITH LOW OIL QUANTITY AND LOW OIL PRESSURE.
Probable cause
THE FAILURE OF THE CONNECTING ROD DUE TO LACK OF LUBRICATION. FACTORS WERE THE PREVIOUS DAMAGE TO THE ENGINE, AND THE UNSUITABLE TERRAIN AT THE PILOT'S DISPOSAL FOR THE FORCED LANDING.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW94LA181
- Event ID
- 20001206X01304
- Case number
- FTW94LA181
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (4)
- Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1994-05-26.
- API snapshot SHA-256: b8f11acbaff4aa437b8d9f077430184704047279ab51668acac2e58e67dcb2c3; retrieved 2026-09-23T01:04:36.020Z.